The World Keeps Spinning
by Heroe
Summary: The Hokage is dead, long live the Hokage. Character deaths. Response to prompt eight (the student becomes the teacher) for SasuSaku Month. COMPLETE.


**Summary**: The Hokage is dead, long live the Hokage. Character deaths. Response to prompt eight (the student becomes the teacher) for SasuSaku Month.

**Disclaimer**: Naruto is (c) Masashi Kishimoto and Shueisha, Inc.

**THE WORLD KEEPS SPINNING**

_The Hokage is dead, long live the Hokage._

At the ripe age of twenty-seven, Sarutobi Konohamaru felt old. He had lived through sieges and wars, lost friends and loved ones, and been governed by no less than three Hokages. Soon to be four, if his current mission proved successful.

"Kakashi-sensei is dead," Haruno Sakura woodenly repeated.

Konohamaru offered his condolences. "I'm sorry, Sakura. He was a great man."

"He was a lazy pervert," she returned with brutal honesty. "But, yes, he was a great man."

"You know why I'm here," Konohamaru tentatively broached the matter at hand. "There's no one else."

Sakura gave a short, unamused laugh. "That's because everyone else is dead. Tsunade-shishou. Naruto. Sasuke-kun. And now Kakashi-sensei."

Seated at the bar of her most recent gambling den, the sole survivor of Team Seven took an extended swig of her drink. Konohamaru suspected it was far from the first and a long way from the last.

"To be named Hokage is an immense honor," he said.

"Then _you_ become Hokage," she snapped.

Konohamaru sent her a sheepish smile. "It's not my time. Give me a few more years."

Sakura's eyes were as cold as the emerald that they reflected. "Let me tell you something, Konohamaru: My being named Hokage isn't an honor. It isn't a _fucking_ achievement. I didn't earn it by my own merit. All of my competition is six feet under, and each and every one of them was or would have been a better Hokage than I. To be blunt, I'm simply the best option because there are no other options."

"I understand that this is a difficult time for you," he placated. "However, the needs of the village must take priority."

"The needs of the village _always_ take priority, don't they?"

Konohamaru could easily perceive her line of thought. Leaf elders ordering one brother to assassinate his clan and bear the guise of a missing-nin. Another brother, bitter and scarred while reared in a world of deceit. A repugnant snake. Red clouds. Vengeance. Two brothers clash, one falls. Truths revealed. Remorse. Rage. Retribution. Mad, mad eyes.

"Screw Konoha," she finally declared. "It took everything from me. _Everything_."

"It gave you everything too," Konohamaru gently reminded. "Without Konoha, there would have been no Senju Tsunade, no Hatake Kakashi, no Uzumaki Naruto, and especially no Uchiha Sasuke."

Sakura lowered her lashes and inhaled deeply, attempting to regain control of her wayward emotions.

"I never wanted to be Hokage," she murmured. "That was Naruto's dream. And, at the very end, it was Sasuke-kun's dream too."

Konohamaru had not been a soldier during the Fourth Shinobi World War, but he knew it had brought an abrupt end to many people's dreams. He also knew that the self-sacrifice of Naruto and Sasuke had allowed the shinobi nations to survive and rebuild, for its people to hope and begin to dream anew.

"They'd want you to carry on their legacy."

"Bastards," she softly cursed. "Forever making me watch their backs, walk in their shadows."

"I'll consider that your acceptance speech," Konohamaru replied with an upward tilt of the lips.

"Tomorrow," Sakura relented. "Let me have tonight, and we'll set out for Konoha tomorrow."

Feeling as though a heavy burden had just been lifted, the Sarutobi heir issued a brief nod and prepared to exit the premises. He would give Sakura tonight to drown herself in memories of the past, because there would be much to do tomorrow and in the days to come. And, after all, the past was the foundation for the present and the building blocks for the future.

Sakura interrupted his departure by waving piece of parchment in the air. "By the way, Konohamaru, I can't leave this town until my gambling debt has been resolved. Since I don't have the necessary funds, you'll need to see that it's settled."

Konohamaru apprehensively took possession of the note. With unsteady fingers, he dared to unfurl the parchment and peer inside. He felt lightheaded upon catching sight of the outrageous quantity of zeroes.

"You're Hokage for five minutes, and I'm already destitute!"

**THE END**


End file.
